Report: Ben Carson, Donald Trump To Get Secret Service Protection

The Secret Service will reportedly be extending protection to the two Republican presidential front-runners, Donald Trump and Ben Carson.

Citing an unnamed “Washington source close to the agency’s plans,” Newsmax reports about two dozen agents will be assigned to each candidate beginning as early as October.

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton will also have increased security, but she has had a Secret Service detail assigned to her since leaving the White House as first lady in 2001.

The source told Newsmax the increased security was the result of a significant number of threats directed at Carson as well as other so-called terrorist chatter.

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“It is widely believed [Islamic State Group] would like to strike a major political target in the U.S.,” the source said.

The source reportedly added that the threats against Carson were “off the charts.”

Carson’s business manager, Armstrong Williams, declined to comment on the former neurosurgeon’s security matters.

Carson’s campaign reportedly first resisted the assigned detail but later acquiesced to the Secret Service’s request after certain intelligence was shared, the source said.

But a statement from acting Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Todd Breasseale said both campaigns had requested protection.

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"The Department of Homeland Security has now received official requests for Secret Service protection from both the Carson and Trump campaigns and has taken them under review pursuant to the statutorily required process,” the statement said, according NBC News.

Trump, on the other hand, has been more public about his request.

In an interview with The Hill earlier in October, Trump pointed out that at this stage in the election cycle in 2007, then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama already had a security detail.

“I want to put them on notice because they should have a liability,” Trump said. “Personally, I think if Obama were doing as well as me he would’ve had Secret Service [earlier]. I have by far the biggest crowds.”

Newsmax reports that the FBI has not publicly suggested that Islamic State group is planning an attack on a “political target,” as the source suggested.